To some extent, Japanese Buddhism can be thought of as a series of imports
from China. Over the centuries, starting as early as 500 C.E., both lay devotees
and monks traveled to the mainland, bringing back with them layer after layer
of Buddhist teachings and practices along with other Chinese cultural traditions.
At the same time however, as the religion developed in Japan, it often did
so along paths not followed on the mainland.

The official story of the arrival of Buddhism to Japan states
that a political delegation arrived from Korea in 538 C.E.. Among the gifts
it brought for the Emperor were a bronze Buddha image, some sutras, a few
religious objects and a letter warmly praising the most excellent Dharma.
After initial opposition, the gifts were accepted, and a temple was built
to house the objects. However, an epidemic which ravaged the land was interpreted
as bringing the wrath of the indigenous kami (Japanese Shinto deities) down
on the nation. This led to the objects being thrown into a canal and the temple
being destroyed.

Nevertheless, during the course of the next half century,
Japan witnessed the firm establishment of Buddhism as a religion officially
recognized and actively supported by the imperial court, thus overcoming doubts
about its efficacy as a means of preventing disease, and also overcoming the
fear of the national kami. In these early days, the most important aspect
with regard to the flow of Chinese culture into Japan was the introduction
of the Chinese script. This provided the means for the Japanese (who did not
possess an indigenous writing system of their own) to assimilate the vast
tradition of Chinese classics, and the Chinese version of the Buddhist canon.
Only very few imported Chinese texts were translated into Japanese; most have
continued throughout their history to be used in their original version.

The main three characteristics of the arrival of Buddhism
in Japan are as follows.

Firstly, it did not come to Japan on a popular level, but
was only accepted by the imperial court and then disseminated in the country
from the top. Often, Buddhist faith in Japan is connected with absolute devotion
to a leader with emphasis on veneration of the founders of sects, and the
majority of sects keep close relations to the central governmental authority
of their times.

Secondly, Buddhism was often associated with magic powers,
and was used by the court as a means of preventing or curing disease, bringing
rain and abundant crops etc.

Thirdly, Buddhism did not replace the indigenous kami, but
always recognized their existence and power. This led to numerous varieties
of Shinto-Buddhist amalgamation, in which often the kami were considered manifestations
of the Buddhas. This is typical of how Buddhism favours harmonious coexistence
with indigenous beliefs, and it was to be a similar story when Buddhism subjugated
local gods and spirits in Tibet a few centuries later.

During the course of the development of Buddhism in Japan,
the prevailing tendency is to search for fulfillment and ultimate truth, not
in any transcendental sphere, but within the structure of secular life, neither
denying nor repressing man’s natural feelings, desires or customs. This
perhaps explains why many Japanese arts and skills are pervaded by Buddhist
spirituality. Well known examples being the tea ceremony, the arts of gardening,
calligraphy and the No play.

The initial period saw the introduction onto Japanese soil
of the six great Chinese schools, including the Hua-Yen and Lu, that became
respectively the Kegon and Ritsu in Japanese. In terms of geography, the six
sects were centered around the capital city of Nara, where great temples such
as the Todaiji and Hokkeji were erected. However, the Buddhism of this early
period – later known as the Nara period – was not a practical
religion, being more the domain of learned preists whose official function
was to pray for the peace and prosperity of the state and imperial house.
This kind of Buddhism had little to offer the illiterate and uneducated masses,
and led to the growth of “people’s priests” who were not
ordained and had no formal Buddhist training. Their practice was a combination
of Buddhist and Taoist elements, and the incorporation of shamanistic features
of the indigenous religion. These figures became immensely popular, and were
a source of criticism towards the sophisticated academic and bureaucratic
Buddhism of the capital.

Heian Period (794-1185)

In 794, the imperial palace of Japan moved to Kyoto, and
it is from this date that important changes and developments take place which
result in the emergence of a more characteristically Japanese form of Buddhism.
Two schools – the Tendai and the Shingon – particularly came to
the fore, in time supplanting the other established schools, and laying the
foundations for future developments.

Two monks, Saicho (767 – 822) and Kukai (774 –
835), effected this change which so decisively affected the future of Japanese
Buddhism. By their comprehensive syntheses of the Chinese doctrine, two systems
of teaching and practice were created, which effectively furnished all the
essentials for the entire further development of Japanese Buddhism .

Saicho, the founding father of the Tendai school, entered
the sangha at an early age. After years of study and practice, he became especially
partial to the teachings of the Chinese grand master Chih-I and the T’ien-t’ai
School, which were based on the Lotus Sutra. In 804, he went to China, and
returned with an improved knowledge of various teachings and practices, along
with many sutras. He established his base on Mount Hiei, and received permission
to ordain two novices every year. Official recognition of his Tendai sect
soon followed, and it became one of the two dominating schools of Japanese
Buddhism during the Heian period.

The teachings of Chih-I form a far-reaching synthesis of
Buddhist tradition inspired by the Lotus Sutra, and Saicho was to add three
further elements: the practice of Chinese Ch’an; the commandments of
the Mahayana which are based in essentials on the Bonmokyo, and parts of the
esoteric teaching of the “True Word”, Chen-yen (Shingon in Japanese).
All this helped to make a decisive step away from the academic Buddhism of
the early period, to a revived active kind of religion based on belief. An
essential element in the doctrine of the Tendai was the teaching in the Lotus
Sutra that the possibility of salvation is given to all.

Kukai and his secret doctrine, known as the True Word, Shingon,
had a mysterious radiance, which encouraged the formation of legends about
him. During his early studies in Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism he came
to know one of the principal texts of the esoteric canon, the Mahavairocana
Sutra, but did not reach a deeper understanding of it. In 804, he traveled
to China where all his doubts and questions with regard to the sutra were
resolved; he returned to Japan with many new skills and instructions to impart.
He founded his headquarters on Mount Koya on the Kii peninsular. His career
was successful to the extent that he was allowed to build a Shingon temple
in the emperor’s palace, where he performed esoteric rituals and ceremonies.
In 835, Kukai sitting in deep meditation fell into complete silence. In the
eyes of his devotees he is not dead, but still sits in timeless meditation
on Mount Koya.

Esoteric practices were very influential to the point that
they dominated the Heian period, and had a decisive influence on the subsequent
Kamakura period. Even the more philosophical Tendai school adopted esoteric
rituals in order to make it more popular with the general population, whilst
figures such as Kukai succeeded by means of esoteric rites in making rain
after a time of drought, giving Buddhist esotericism a magical attraction.

Towards the end of the Heian, the dissemination of more popular
devotional forms of Buddhism began, which were mainly derived from the Pure
Land cult of Amitabha (Amida in Japanese). This was connected with the somewhat
pessimistic philosophy of a deteriorating “final period of the dharma”,
which became widespread during this time. The devotional cults basically propounded
the notion that salvation was only possible through the intercession of buddhas
and bodhisattvas, for example through the recitation and repetition of simple
formula such as the Namu-Amida-butsu (the Nembutsu – “thinking
on the Buddha”). There were other faith-based doctrines during this
time, the most noteworthy being the belief in the bodhisattva Jizo, who dispenses
help to beings on all levels of existence and it is still alive today.

Kamakura Period (1185-1333)

From the end of the 11th century, a new military aristocracy
in the provinces increasingly evaded the control of the central government,
culminating in war between the Taira and Minamoto families. The latter were
victorious and thereby acquired absolute power of the country, setting up
a military government in Kamakura in the vicinity of present-day Tokyo. Minamoto-no
Yoritomo received the title of Shogun with supreme military and police power,
thus transferring rule from the court aristocracy to those of the warrior
class (samurai). Inevitably, this was to change the whole cultural climate.

This new climate did not favour the study of abstruse philosophy
or the performance of elaborate rituals, so more robust and generally accessible
teachings became the order of the day. The Tendai and Shingon
schools declined, and more earthy democratic movements such as Zen and the
devotional schools advanced.

The first of the three great traditions of Kamakura Buddhism,
the doctrine of the Pure Land, continued the development which had begun in
the Heian period. There was the founding of an independent Japanese sect of
the Pure Land known as Jodo-shu by Genku (1133-1212), better known
as Honen. He decided that Enlightenment was no longer achievable by the strength
man alone, and that the only possible way was to surrender to Buddha Amida
and rebirth into the Western Paradise Pure Land. New in Honen’s
philosophy was that, while he recognized the scholastic apparatus of Mahayana
philosophy, he concentrated on an intensified religious feeling which found
expression in the simple invocation of the name Namu-Amida-Butsu, stamped
by unshakeable faith in rebirth into Amida’s paradise.

Honen’s successor, Shinran-Shonin (1173-1262) founded
the True Sect of the Pure Land, Jodo-shinshu, which is the
largest Buddhist sect in Japan today. In his chief work written in 1224, he
explains that the doctrine, practice, belief and realization are all given
by Amida Buddha and that nothing depends on man’s “own power”
(jiriki). Instead, everything depends on the “power of the other”
(tariki), namely that of the Buddha Amida. Shinran emphasized that the recitation
of the Namu-Amida-butsu was simply the expression of thankfu joy for having
received everything from Amida. It is worth noting that Shinran was a monk
who decided to take a wife, with which he had five children, and thus he symbolizes
a decisive turn in Japan towards lay Buddhism. He stressed that obedience
to the Buddhist commandments and the performance of good deeds were not necessary
to obtain deliverance; in fact it is precisely the bad man who can be assured
of rebirth in Amida’s paradise if he wholeheartedly appeals to Amida.

While belief in Amida proceeds from the “strength of
the other” (tariki), Zen Buddhism teaches that man can come to deliverance
and Enlightenment only from his own strength (jiriki). Zen (Chinese Ch’an,
from Pali, jhana and Sanskrit, dhyana) places supreme emphasis on self-power:
on the active mobilization of all one’s energies towards the realization
of the ideal of enlightenment. There had been contacts between Japan and Zen
doctrine since the 7th century. However, a lasting tradition that concentrated
on Zen practice and led to the formation of a separate sect, was first created
by the Tendai monk Eisai (1141-1215). During his studies in China, he had
been introduced to the practice and doctrine of a branch of Zen which went
back to Lin-chi (called Rinzai in Japanese), and on his return to Japan he
started to disseminate the new doctrine.

Eisai established firm relations with the new military government
in Kamakura and the military caste that held sway there. They found the simple,
hard and manly discipline of Zen more to their taste than the ritual and dogma
of the old schools. In contrast to this, Zen Buddhism was greeted with less
enthusiasm by the intellectual elite of cities such as Kyoto. There, established
practice was represented by Tendai, Shingon and Pure Land with their beautiful
rituals. The fierce demands of Zen, with its emphasis on personal effort and
the promise of enlightenment rather than heaven, seemed rebarbative and disturbing
to the elite. Eisai is also linked to the introduction of tea drinking in
Japan, which in time was to lead to the creation of the “tea-way”
which, though non-religious, was strongly influenced by the spirit of Zen
and the Tea Ceremony.

In general, the monks involved in the transmission of Zen
from China to Japan also transmitted Neo-Confucian values and ideas, which
were themselves strongly influenced by Ch’an Buddhism and Hua-yen philosophy.
The Zen masters added a Confucian moral to Buddhist spirituality, which appealed
to the new warrior-class of the Kamakura. For many centuries, the big Rinzai
temples in Japan were centres of Chinese learning in general, and Neo-Confucianism
in particular. Furthermore, the Rinzai school is closely associated with Japanese
arts and the “ways” – the aforementioned "tea way",
the "flower way", the "way of archery" and others.

A second Chinese school of Zen, the Ts’ao-tung (Soto
in Japanese), introduced to Japan by Dogen (1200-1253). After four years of
training in China under Master Ju-ching, Dogen returned to Japan in 1227,
and eventually established the Eihei-ji temple in a remote province, which
to this day remains one of the two main temples of the Japanese Soto Zen school.
The foundation of Dogen’s Zen is the constantly emphasized principle
that practice does not lead to Enlightenment, but is carried out in the
state of being Enlightened; otherwise it is not practice. In a logically
constructed picture of the world, he equates all being – the believer,
his practice and the world – with the present moment, the moment of
enlightenment. Striving for enlightenment would therefore be going astray.
Dogen’s chief work was the Shobogenzo (The Eye and Treasury of the True
Dharma).

After Pure Land and Zen, the final great reformer and sect-founder
of the Kamakura period was Nichiren (1222-82). After studying in Kamakura
and training in Tendai doctrine and practice, he came to the conclusion that
the highest, all-embracing truth lay in the Lotus Sutra, known in Japan as
the Myoho-renge-kyo, the fundamental canonical text of the Tendai sect. However,
Nichiren thought that for the simple ordinary person, Tendai dogma and the
reading of the Lotus Sutra were too difficult. He proclaimed that the title,
Myoho-renge-kyo, was the essence of the whole sutra, and that it was in fact
identical with the state of Enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha. It was therefore
sufficient to utter the title and find oneself in the state of highest enlightenment.
This condition gave rise spontaneously to morally right behaviour, so that
it was necessary for the state and society that all should follow the practice
of the “invocation of the title.”

Two issues isolated Nichiren: the militant style of his presentation,
and his insistence that the Lotus Sutra should inform the practice of government.
He constantly made his views public, and the hot worded language which he
used spared neither secular or Buddhist establishments, and led to his eventual
banishment to the island of Izu. He was soon pardoned, but his continued attacks
on institutions so provoked government and clergy that he was sentenced to
be executed. According to legend, the axe which was raised to behead him was
struck by lightning. Off the hook, he again went into exile and further developed
his writings. When he finally returned to the mainland, he devoted himself
to his missionary activity and to the training of monks on Mount Minobu, until
today the main temple of the Nichiren sect. In recent times, certain branches
of Nichiren have been connected to nationalistic tendencies within Japan.

Later Periods

The demise of the Kamakura regime inaugurated a new era of
internal strife and fighting in Japan, which was to last into the seventeenth
century. It also signaled the end of the truly creative phase of Japanese
Buddhism. A slide into stagnation occurred, which was to broadly last until
the end of the nineteenth century. According to the twentieth century Zen
writer D.T. Suzuki, after the Kamakura period “what followed was more
or less the filling-in and working out of details.”

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the privileged relations
of the Rinzai Zen sect with the military government permitted it to gain tremendous
wealth. This led to the creation of what is known as the “Culture of
the Five Mountains” which constitutes the summit of Japanese Zen culture.
It included all the arts, such as architecture, painting, calligraphy and
sculpture, as well as printing, gardening and medicine. Ikkyu (1394-1481),
a priest of the Rinzai sect, was particularly known for his unconventional
character, and he was an accomplished poet, calligrapher and painter.

The Tokugawa Shogunate was to rule Japan from its bastion
in Edo (Tokyo) for over two and a half centuries. It was to be the longest
period of peace, and for the most part, prosperity in the history of the country.
This was basically achieved by closing the country to the outside world, and
establishing a regime of inflexible authoritarian control that created stability
and order, but stifled all creative change and innovation. The Buddhist clergy
was under the strict control of the government, and it was forbidden to found
a new sect or build a new temple without special permission.

The Shogunate encouraged the Buddhist clergy of the sects
in scholarly pursuits, hoping thereby to divert them from politics. Therefore
a huge amount of learned literature was produced, and by the second half of
the seventeenth century, editions of the Buddhist canon appeared, the most
influential being that by Tetsugen of the new Obaku-shu sect.
Obaku-shu had been founded by the Chinese master Yin-yuan Lung-ch’i,
a Rinzai Zen priest. It added a new flavour to Japanese Zen, not only by its
syncretism (it contained elements of Pure Land Buddhism), but also by the
introduction of rituals, customs and a new architectural style imported from
Ming China.

From the Zen school during this period, a few influential
figures did emerge, the poet Basho and the Rinzai Zen masters Bankei and Hakuin
being chief among them. Matsuo Basho (1644-94) was a poet who consciously
transformed the practice of poetry into an authentic religious way; many of
his finest poems (seventeen syllable haiku form) are thought to succinctly
catch the elusive, often melancholy magic of the passing moment, and thereby
express the true spirit of Zen. Bankei (1622-93) was an iconoclast who challenged
orthodox Zen teaching. He spent many years intensively pursuing Enlightenment,
and then at last he realized that he had been in possession of what he had
been seeking all along, and decided that the term Un-born best described it.
He thereafter advocated that people simply awaken to the unborn in the midst
of everyday affairs, and he won himself a large audience which did not go
down well with the Zen establishment.

Hakuin (1685-1768) is considered to be the restorer of the
Rinzai sect in modern times. He revived the use of the koan, statements of
Zen masters that are used as problems set to novices in Zen monasteries. They
cannot be solved by rational thinking, and are designed to help open the mind
to Enlightenment. Hakuin invented many new koans himself, adapted to the need
of the times, in that they do not presuppose any scholarly knowledge of the
Chinese Zen classics. His most famous koan being, “The sound produced
by the clapping of two hands is easy to perceive, but what is the sound produced
by one hand only?”

The restoration of the imperial regime in 1868 signaled the
end of Japanese isolation. The pressure on Japan to reopen her doors simply
becoming too great. There followed a temporary persecution of Buddhism when
Shinto was made a state cult, however Buddhism was too firmly established
in the affections of the Japanese people for this to last for long, and its
religious freedom was effectively soon regained. For the first time in centuries,
contact was made with other Buddhist countries, along with Western ones as
well, and this served to encourage Buddhist scholarship, and various Buddhist
universities were established by the first half of the twentieth century.

During the last 50 years, the evolution of Buddhism has been
closely linked to Japan’s history. The grip of the government during
the Second World War over Buddhist institutions was rigid, and any writings
in which Buddhism was placed above the authority of the state or the emperor
were suppressed. The only opposition to this came from the Soka-gakkai, founded
in 1930 as a non-religious society of teachers, and they were severely persecuted.
Since the end of the war, Buddhism in Japan has once again revived, and there
has been the foundation of many new sects, along with an ongoing reinvigoration
as a result from sustained contacts with other peoples and cultures. Japanese
Zen has also been successfully exported to many Western countries, in particular
North America.